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Before describing the cases I will first sketch the context in which they were conceived. Each case study is what I will call a networked event. A networked event is an event in which people gather physically in a place and in which online communication facilitated by Internet technology and other information and communication technologies play an important role. In the online environment other people who are not present in the physical location, can participate, and/or the people present can also connect in non-physical ways. Such environments became possible with the rise of the Internet. In the development of these new formats insights from art and technology, from entertainment and from the social sciences played an important role. Firstly, new collaborations evolved in art and technology and entertainment events, between artists and people who could make the technology work. Designers, programmers and hardware engineers have to collaborate to enable such work to be created. In the case studies that I present in this chapter and in chapter 4, these kinds of 'first-time collaborations' took place, in which art, technology and the individuals who presented the social agenda were required to work together. Both the Galactic Hacker Party and the Seropositive Ball took place within the cultural context of Amsterdam. These events were part of the public domain. They were produced and hosted by Paradiso, a musical venue in the centre of Amsterdam with an established international reputation.

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